Even the most high-performing sales teams face impediments in building buyer relationships and successfully communicating with prospects and patrons. What sets successful businesses apart is their capability to strategically maneuver the course of obstacles in the path of closing a deal.

Proposals are typically requested during the later stage of the sales process. It is an opportunity to submit a written offer when all the effort that a sales executive put into building awareness, trust, and rapport with a prospect has paid off. Irrespective of whether it is a simple document or an in-depth request for a proposal (RFP), it is typically the most challenging part of the sales process for most sales teams.

What makes the proposal process so important?

A proposal is fundamentally the platter for a vendor’s total offerings, and if presented ineffectively, it can reduce an entire sales process to nothing. The product or offering could be the exact choice for a buyer, but if the proposal does not convey value or articulate competitive distinction, the bidder might simply lose the business.

Proposal writing software also eliminates friction within the proposal process, saving valuable time for sales teams to create more business opportunities. If your sales team is facing trouble with creating proposals from scratch, it is time you consider ways to streamline the proposal writing process. There are many ways to improve the process of proposal generation, and it all starts with the right proposal writing software.

Here are six challenges associated with proposal generation, and how they can be tackled with the right proposal writing software.

Time and tide wait for none

Timing is an all-important factor in closing a deal. One of the most common challenges is that there simply isn't enough time to get everything done before a sales proposal is due. This could be because sales teams are often frustrated with multiple reference documents and files and not knowing which one to pick. Worse yet, they often end up picking the wrong template, only to redo the entire proposal later. Sales teams that work on submitting proposals also spend a lot of time formatting, copying, pasting, and renaming items within a single document.

With proposal writing software, sales teams can save valuable time and eliminate the need for creating every proposal from the scratch when creating proposals. A good proposal writing software comprises a centralized content repository with up-to-date proposal templates, helping sales reps pick the right one at the first instant. The templates that the proposal writing software offers are all pre-formatted to look professional and can be customized easily to make it more personalized to the prospect, to include images, videos, and more – all this in very less time.

Collaboration matters

Sometimes sales executives don't get the required input from other stakeholders while creating proposals. For instance, it could be something as important as the input from subject matter experts on how best the vendor can solve the potential customer’s problem.

With proposal writing software, sales teams can access features that simplify collaborates between stakeholders. They can produce workflows that are automated and let the various teams keep track of the progress of the proposal process. Proposal writing software also allows subject matter experts to stay up-to-date with what is happening during the proposal generation process. Access to these workflows can be controlled, ensuring that only the relevant people have access to view or make edits during the proposal creation process. Proposal writing software can help keep track of who made changes and when, before a proposal is approved. These workflows also provide real-time notifications when a proposal moves through the process.

It's about design and style

Sales executives spend enormous time to collaborate with various stakeholders and gather the right information to be added in a proposal. But when the formatting goes askew and they’re burdened with overlaid text boxes, bad design and style settings, or incorrect images, they end up being extremely frustrated.

With proposal writing software, sales teams can create proposals with style, increasing the chances of winning proposals over competitors. Intuitive and easy in-built design features in proposal writing software allow sales reps to do away with traditional and boring templates and create visually appealing proposals faster.

Too many slip-ups

Often, sales executives send out a business proposal in a hurry, only to realize that it contained mistakes. These mistakes can create a bad image of the company in the prospect’s mind and can hinder deals. Perhaps the mistakes happen because the sales executive missed collaborating with a subject matter expert in the process.

Proposal writing software helps ensure that there are seldom any mistakes made before a proposal is sent out to a prospect. Proposal writing software keeps pre-sales, sales, and marketing teams up-to-date on the progress of the proposal, providing instant notifications about any possible errors and allowing them to check the proposal for errors before sending it to the prospect. This way, a company can ensure that the proposal contains zero-errors and only essential and accurate information.

Double trouble

If there’s one thing that sales teams hate, it is the task of making double entries of data. Lack of integration between processes and software can lead to sales executives entering the same data into numerous systems. The result is an increased likelihood of mistakes, an incredible waste of time, and a frustrated sales executive.

Proposal writing software can offer integrations with other CRM tools, project management tools, or accounting software. This not only saves time for sales teams but also makes the entire proposal writing process faster and easier. Integrations allow sales teams to pull out contact information from the CRM and add it directly in a proposal, without the need to retype and possibly misspell the information.

Does your sales team face these challenges too? Then it’s time you check out Zomentum. Zomentum can eliminate mistakes in the proposal creation process and help save invaluable time.

To know how, schedule a demo here.